System and method for treatment of produced waters containing gel

Title: System and method for treatment of produced waters containing gel.Abstract: This disclosure describes novel systems and methods for removing gel from flowback water. The methods and systems include treating acidified flowback water with aluminum chlorohydrate. ...

The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20120292259, System and method for treatment of produced waters containing gel.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/486,982, filed May 17, 2011, and entitled “System and Method for Treatment of Produced Waters Containing Gels” which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

INTRODUCTION

The drilling of natural gas and oil wells continues to expand throughout the United States. The success of these activities is directly related to the use of recently developed hydrofracturing techniques. While these techniques continue to evolve and change, the one constant is the need for large quantities of water.

Typically, oil and gas exploration and production results in the extraction of a significant amount of subsurface water, called produced water, along with the hydrocarbon. If hydrofracturing is being used in the area, much of the water used in hydrofracturing may also flowback to the surface. Because produced water containing spent hydrofracturing water contains the man-made additives injected as part of the hydrofracturing process in addition to the normal contaminants associated with produced water, it is usually referred to as “frac flowback water” or “flowback water” to indicate the different chemistry.

Without expensive treatment, flowback water is not typically suitable for direct reuse in the hydrofracturing (or “frac”) process due to a portion of the flowback which contains man-made or natural additives used to improve the frac process (generally referred to as “frac gel” or, simply, “gel” in the industry). This gel, which served as a viscosity modifier during the frac process, interferes with most chemical and physical treatment methods. A gel often includes large chain, high molecular weight, polymers such as guar gum. When present in flowback water, gel increases the chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD) of that water and encourage the growth of bacteria. The bacteria growth is not desirable from a reuse aspect. In addition, spent gel often interferes with the operation of fresh gel, rendering reuse of the flowback water undesirable as a feed water for the frac process.

The most logical means by which to minimize fresh water usage in hydrofracturing is to recycle flowback and produced water into future hydrofracturing activities. The reuse of this water is only limited by the contamination from the hydrofracturing additives and mineral deposits far beneath the earth's surface. This contamination exists in the form of, but not limited to, suspended solids and scale forming compounds such as iron, calcium, magnesium, barium and strontium. To utilize these contaminated waters in hydrofracturing without proper treatment places the long term performance of the well at risk and may increase capital spending due to unnecessary and avoidable well reworking.

TREATMENT OF PRODUCED WATERS CONTAINING GEL

This disclosure describes novel systems and methods for removing gel from flowback water. The methods and systems include treating acidified flowback water with aluminum chlorohydrate.

In part, this disclosure describes a method for removing gel from flowback water. The method includes:

a) adjusting a pH of flowback water to about 5 or less to form acidified water;

b) adding aluminum chlorohydrate to the acidified water causing a gel to precipitate out of the acidified water; and

c) separating the gel from the acidified water to form gel treated flowback water.

Yet another aspect of this disclosure describes a water treatment system that includes an oil removing system, a gel removing system, and a water softening system. The oil removing system adds acid until a pH of about 5 or less is reached and removes oil from gel containing flowback water to form oil treated acidified flowback water. The gel removing system adds aluminum chlorohydrate to the oil treated acidified flowback water to form gel treated flowback water. The water softening system softens the gel treated flowback water to form softened treated flowback water.

These and various other features as well as advantages which characterize the systems and methods described herein will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. Additional features are set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the technology. The benefits and features of the technology will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawing figures, which form a part of this application, are illustrative of embodiments of systems and methods described below and are not meant to limit the scope of the invention in any manner, which scope shall be based on the claims.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a water treatment system for treating contaminated water according to the principles of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of an oil removal system for removing oil from contaminated water according to the principles of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a gel removal system for removing gel from contaminated water according to the principles of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a water softening system for softening contaminated water according to the principles of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a method for treating contaminated water according to the principles of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, properties such as molecular weight, concentrations, reaction conditions, temperatures, and so forth used in the specification and claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, unless indicated to the contrary, the numerical parameters set forth in the following specification and attached claims are approximations that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in the light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques.

The term “floating” as used herein refer to treating a liquid with a flotation operation to separate solid or liquid particles from a liquid phase. There are several types of flotation operations that are well known in the art including dissolved-air flotation (DAF), air flotation and vacuum flotation.

When referring to concentrations of contaminants in water or to water properties such as pH and viscosity, unless otherwise stated the concentration refers to the concentration of a sample properly taken and analyzed according to standard Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) procedures using the appropriate standard test method or, where no approved method is available, commonly accepted methods may be used. For example, for Oil and Grease the test method identified as 1664A is an approved method. In the event two or more accepted methods provide results that indicate two different conditions as described herein, the condition should be considered to have been met (e.g., a condition that must be “above pH of about 7.0” and one accepted method results a pH of 6.5 and another in pH of 7.2, the water should be considered to be within the definition of “about 7.0”).

Water use in hydrofracturing varies from basin to basin and even within the basin. For example, in some areas of the Piceance Basin in western Colorado the amount of water utilized is 60,000 barrels (2,520,000 gallons) per well while in some areas of the Marcellus play in Pennsylvania and surrounding states, hydrofracturing requires up to 150,000 barrels (6,300,000 gallons) per well. With thousands of wells being drilled in these and other basins every year, the demand on naturally occurring surface water sources as well as sub-surface aquifers is significant.

In areas of the arid West, water resources are limited and are a valuable commodity. In areas which may traditionally have been considered water rich, such as the Marcellus, there are growing concerns over fresh water use for hydrofracturing. These concerns could lead to restrictions on drilling activity, as has already happened in the State of New York. Considering that the development of our own natural resources decreases our dependency on foreign oil, improvements to minimize fresh water use must be achieved in order to avoid further restrictions on drilling activity.

The contamination of the fresh water during the hydrofracturing processes also varies from basin to basin and even within individual basins. In western Colorado, calcium levels may range from 250 to 500 mg/l while in areas of the Marcellus, calcium may range between 1000 and 20,000 mg/l. Scaling components such as barium may see an even wider range, with levels in Colorado ranging from 12 to 50 mg/l compared to 100 to 3000 mg/l in the Marcellus.

As discussed above, without expensive treatment, flowback water is not typically suitable for direct reuse in the hydrofracturing process due to a portion of the flowback water which contains frac gel. This gel interferes with most chemical and physical treatment methods. A gel often includes large chain, high molecular weight, polymers such as guar. Further, a gel may increase bacteria growth in the flowback water, which is not desirable from a reuse aspect. In addition, spent gel often interferes with the operation of fresh gel, rendering reuse of the flowback water undesirable as a feed water for the frac process.

Technologies such as electrocoagulation (EC) have proved to be ineffective in the removal of gel. Gel in flowback water will typically cause the failure of mechanical filtration processes as well as gravity clarification processes. Treatment processes such as chemical oxidation break the polymer chains into shorter, lower molecular weight chains. However, the conversion to carbon dioxide and water by chemical oxidation is difficult, and requires long contact times and excessive amounts of oxidants. Therefore, an effective treatment process must be developed to deal with this component of flowback water.

The methods and systems described herein presents a process for the treatment of these varying hydrofracture flowback waters to remove undesirable constituents allowing the water to again be used in new well development and hydrofracturing procedures. More specifically, the systems and methods described herein relate to the removal of gel, such as guar gum or, simply, “guar”, from the hydrofracture flowback waters. The methods and systems can be conducted onsite as well as in fixed facilities. Onsite treatment greatly reduces the environmental impacts that trucking large volumes of water presents.

The removal of the gel from flowback water is the critical step before other downstream treatment technologies can be applied. The gel, such as guar, is removed through a unique chemical process that alters the solubility of the gel in the flowback water and allows for the physical separation of the gel from the remaining wastewater. This is different than other approaches to treatment that require chemical or biological oxidation and the breaking of the gel polymer chains into smaller molecular weight segments. In the systems and methods described herein, the gel is removed from the flowback water, immediately decreasing the chemical and biological oxygen demand (COD and BOD), which reduces downstream loading to other technologies. This gel removal step allows the remaining flowback water to be treated with typical wastewater treatment technologies or blended with produced waters and treated with repeatable results.

The entire process is capable of achieving very low levels of the scale forming chemical compounds mentioned above. For example, the process described herein can treat barium and strontium to less than 1 mg/l and calcium to less than 100 mg/l. The process goals will vary from well site to well site, with disposal being the economic alternative to recycling this water. For example, disposal of flowback and produced water in some areas of the country can be accomplished for less than $0.25/barrel while, in other areas, costs may exceed $14.00/barrel. The degree of constituent removal is directly related to the amount of chemistry feed which, in turn, plays a primary role in determining the overall cost of treatment. The operator of the oil or gas drilling program will then have to balance disposal costs with treatment costs to determine the level of treatment necessary to achieve performance goals.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a water treatment system 100 for treating contaminated water. The water treatment system 100 for treating contaminated water includes a gel removal system 102. In some embodiments the water treatment system 100 further includes an oil removal system 101 and/or a water softening system 104.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a gel removal system 102. The gel removal system 102 includes a tank 106, a coagulation tank 110, and at least one solid liquid separator 112. Flowback water containing gel 130 is pumped into tank 106. In some embodiments, the flowback water containing gel 130 is pumped by others from storage pits or tanks into tank 106. The tank 106 may be any suitable tank 106, such as a surge tank 106 or mixing tank 106, for holding and mixing the flowback water containing gel 130 with acid 105.

The flowback water containing gel 130 is returning from hydrofracture operations and contains various undesirable constituents such as gel, iron, barium, calcium, magnesium and strontium. Often, prior to treatment, the flow back water is stored in pits or tanks. Ideally, flowback water containing gel 130 should be isolated and treated separately by the system 100 or the gel removal system 102 thereby minimizing the space and costs associated with the additional treatment technology needed to treat flowback water containing gel 130. Once treated through system 100, the water can then be comingled with flowback water that does not contain gel and produced water. If such segregation is not feasible, all water may be treated with this process.

A utilized surge tank 106 provides equalization of flow. The flow rate is highly flexible and determines the size of the mixing tanks. Typically, flow rates between 30 gpm to 1000 gpm are possible; however, the gel removal system 102 may be designed to accommodate any range of flow rates. In some embodiments, the surge tank 106 is aerated using a centrifugal blower.

The acid 105 is added to tank 106 and mixed, if possible, with the flowback water containing gel 130 to form acidified water 132. The acid 105 is added to depress the pH to 5 or less. In some embodiments, the acid 105 is added until the pH is about 4-5. In other embodiments, the acid 105 is added until the pH is about 4.5 to 5. In yet another embodiment, the pH is adjusted until the pH is about 5.5 or less. In further embodiments, the acid 105 is hydrochloric acid. In other embodiments, the acid 105 is sulfuric acid or some other acid, possibly selected based on the salt that will result in the treated water. The addition of acid 105 effectively removes soluble carbon dioxide and bicarbonates through conversion to carbon dioxide gas which is stripped through the action of mixing. In some embodiments, the escaping carbon dioxide gas from the surge tank 106 is captured for use later. In some embodiments, the addition of acid 105 is controlled automatically using a pH controller and pH probe immersed in the surge tank 106. For example, the addition of acid 105 may result in the following equation:

HCO3+HCl+H2O+Cl.

Other options for those skilled in the trade for air stripping carbon dioxide would be packed columns, tray towers, spray systems and membranes systems. Further, membrane systems may be prone to malfunction due to the gel contained in some flowback water. These systems could follow the surge tank 106 and would allow the minimization of surge tank 106 volume to a volume large enough to accomplish pH adjustment efficiently.

In some embodiments, one or more oxidizers 103, such as hydrogen peroxide, ozone, sodium hypochlorite, persulfates, chlorine dioxide and sodium or potassium permanganates as well as any other chemical oxidizer, are added for bacterial control as well as the conversion of ferrous iron species into the more insoluble ferric iron species. The removal of other species such as manganese will also benefit from this approach as would the destruction of sulfide species.

Contact time between the acid 105 and the flowback water containing gel 130 in the surge tank 106 may be maintained at a minimum of 30 minutes or some other period of time to provide adequate time to strip the carbon dioxide gas from solution. Alternatively, the tank 106 could be monitored so that the contact time could be varied to achieve some set treatment target, such as a dissolved carbon dioxide level. In some embodiments, 90% of the carbon dioxide is removed using this approach. If higher removals are desired, the aforementioned packed towers and membranes systems maybe employed.

As discussed above, the addition of acid 105 reduces the pH of the flowback water to 5 or less resulting in acidified water 132. A pH of 5 or less is additionally beneficial for several other processes such as destabilizing weak oil in water emulsions.

The acidified water 132 is pumped into the coagulation tank 110. Aluminum chlorohydrate is added to the acidified water 132 in the coagulation tank 110 at a rate determined by applicable jar tests or by active monitoring. This addition causes an immediate and rapid separation of the gel. The reaction can be followed visually and the newly formed gel is insoluble in the flowback fluid forming flowback fluid with insoluble gel 136. In addition, the gel, with a specific gravity lower than water floats to the surface at a rapid rate. The flowback fluid containing gel must remain at a pH of 5 or less as any attempt to raise the pH of the fluid containing the gel allows it to resolubilize. Accordingly, separation of the insoluble gel must be accomplished under acidic conditions. Previously utilized gel separation methods were always performed at or around a neutral pH. Accordingly, it was unexpected for the aluminum chlorohydrate to work utilizing an acidic pH.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of an oil removal system 101. In some embodiments, oil is removed from the acidified water 132 by the oil removal system 101 prior to being pumped into the coagulation tank 110. The oil removal system 101 may be performed by any components for removing oil from flowback water containing gel 130 now known or later developed, such as an American Petroleum Institute (API) oil-water separator. For example, the oil removal system 101 may include a coalescing separator 108. The coalescing separator 108 receives the acidified water 132 from the surge tank 106. In some embodiments the acidified water 132 is pumped into the coalescing separator 108 using a non-emulsifying mechanical pump. The coalescing separator 108 separates oil from the flowback water and is recovered for resale. The process may utilize a unique oil/water separator 108 which combines the solids handling capability of an inclined plate separator along with the coalescing ability of a media with a high surface area, such as HD Q-PAC. Such a separator 108 is available from Hydro Quip Inc., located at 108 Pond Street, Seekonk, Mass. 02771. In some embodiments, the oil removal system 101 results in recovery of at least 50% and up to 99% of oil droplets greater than 20 microns to form oil treated flowback water containing gel 134. The term “oil treated flowback water” as used herein refers to flowback water that has had a significant portion of its oil droplets greater than 20 microns removed, such as 30% or more. In some embodiments, the oil removal system 101 results in recovery of at least 85% of oil droplets greater than 20 microns to form oil treated flowback water containing gel 134. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the acidified water 132 sent to the coagulation tank 110 of the gel removal system 102 is the oil treated flowback water containing gel 134.

The formed flowback fluid containing an insoluble gel 136 is then sent to a solid liquid separator or clarifier 112 as illustrated in FIG. 2. The flowback fluid containing insoluble gel 136 flows into a solid liquid separation phase. To take advantage of the buoyant characteristics of the insoluble gel, in some embodiments, the solid liquid separator 112 is a dissolved air floatation (DAF), an induced air floatation or a dissolved gas floatation. The insoluble gel accumulates on the surface of the flotation area of the clarifier or separator 112 and is removed by the clarifier\'s sludge removal mechanism resulting in gel treated flowback water. The term “gel treated flowback water” as used herein refers to the effluent that results from treating or processing gel containing flowback water with the gel removal system 102. The solids produced from the gel 111 are rubber-like in consistency and dewater readily. The solids 111 can be dewatered through any means conventionally used by those skilled in the art.

In some embodiments the gel removal system 102 includes a first separator 112a and second separator 112b. The discharge of the second clarifier or separator 112b results in a low turbidity, low total suspended solids effluent (i.e. flowback fluid containing little to no gel 138). The primary remaining constituents of concern are now scale forming ions as described earlier in this review.

The flowback fluid containing little to no gel or gel treated flowback water 138 may be given for additional treatment through a variety of steps. For example, in some embodiments, the flowback fluid containing little to no soluble gel is passed through a second coagulation tank and a flocculation tank at a pH more conducive to flocculation (6.5-8.0). In some embodiments, due to the nature of the flowback fluid, the separation equipment may be floatation clarifiers.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a water softening system 104. In some embodiments, the flowback fluid containing little to no gel or gel treated flowback water 138 is then sent to a water softening system 104. The water softening system 104 may be performed by any components for softening water, such as chemical softening water. In some embodiments, the water softening system 104 includes a first mix tank 114, a second mix tank 116, a clarification system 118, a sump 120, a plurality of multimedia filters 122, and a pH adjustment tank 124.

In some embodiments, as gel treated flowback water 138 enters the first mix tank 114, a pH probe and controller sense the influent water pH and adds caustic soda 113, such as sodium hydroxide, to a achieve a pH between 9.5 and 11.3. This step converts available alkalinity, usually in the bicarbonate form, to carbonate alkalinity. The pH is maintained under this condition automatically. In some embodiments, contact time in this tank 114 is maintained at greater than 60 minutes. The first mix tank 114 initiates the precipitation of calcium, barium, and strontium as the carbonates and magnesium as the hydroxide based upon the following reactions:

Any form of hydroxide can be used to perform this reaction including sodium and potassium hydroxides 113 as well as the use of calcium hydroxide (lime) 113. In further embodiments, if the hardness treatment goals are met, no additional steps are required resulting in pH adjusted water 140. In other embodiments, additional carbonates, such as potassium carbonate and/or sodium carbonate 115 or even carbon dioxide gas 117 are added to affect treatment. Samples from this process step are then analyzed to determine the effective hardness removal and result in pH adjusted water 140.

The use of carbon dioxide gas 117 may not require the addition of sodium or potassium carbonates. The gel treated flowback water 138 is exposed to gaseous carbon dioxide 117 while maintaining an elevated pH (9.5-10.5) in the first mix tank 114 through the use of caustic soda 113 (other alkalis such as potassium hydroxide can be substituted for sodium hydroxide) additions based upon automated pH control. The carbonates are formed in situ and then react as described above. The following reactions occur when using carbon dioxide gas 117:

How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREEservice from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like System and method for treatment of produced waters containing gel or other areas of interest.###

Data source: patent applications published in the public domain by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Information published here is for research/educational purposes only. FreshPatents is not affiliated with the USPTO, assignee companies, inventors, law firms or other assignees. Patent applications, documents and images may contain trademarks of the respective companies/authors. FreshPatents is not responsible for the accuracy, validity or otherwise contents of these public document patent application filings. When possible a complete PDF is provided, however, in some cases the presented document/images is an abstract or sampling of the full patent application for display purposes. FreshPatents.com Terms/Support -g2--0.6231